History Channel’s Alone Star Mark D’Ambrosio

Marine Sniper, survival instructor and former Alone participant, Mark D’Ambrosio joins the podcast to discuss his two experiences on Alone, how he almost died during filming, and his entrepreneur endeavors.

Episode Transcript

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with host Chance Conrad. Are youfreaking serious? It's Conrado. This is
the gauge and I am Chance Conrado. On this episode of the podcast,
We're Alone, but we're not reallyalone. We've got Marked Ambrosio, who
did two stints on the TV showAlone. You guys know what that show

(02:19):
is. He nearly won his firstround, but he almost died, and
luckily he got out of there whenhe did, or he would have died
and we wouldn't have got to talkto him. But he has lived a
pretty unique life. He served inthe military as a survival expert, went
on the show alone, kicked theship out of that show, and uh,
now he should have talk to us. Check it out. What are

(02:40):
we gonna talk about on here?You know, I want to talk about
astrology. It's what I just basedon your astrology and hippie stuff. Yeah,
I figured that would be uh makessense. No, uh, you
know alone absolutely anything hunting, longrange shooting uh involved um, because I

(03:04):
started doing some pretty insane courses withdifferent dudes this year and then uh,
I started a wine business. That'sall an adventure based wine business really,
So it's like, you know,there's QR code on the back and I'm
gonna show you these things real quick. Yeah, so you know what the
heck I'm talking about because you wouldlike it, because it's all about if
you like the outdoors. Yeah.I don't know you, by the way,

(03:27):
but I don't know. I couldjust assuming yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah, I'll check that out.So they all have something on the outside,
right, So you can start afire with one of them, you
can catch fish with one of them. You can Uh that's pretty slick,
right, Yeah, that is slick. So I'm trying to promote the shit
out of that. Yeah you should. Yeah, but it's a it's a
learning lesson. Yeah, any anyentrepreneurship is a big lesson. Yeah.

(03:53):
I just got back from Montana doinga epic master camping mastermind with ten high
level entrepreneurs really, yeah, thehighs an event in the mountains kind of
thing. Yeah. But yeah,and uh, you know, we took
them out there and I was helpingteach the sustainment stuff. I guess to
give them some activities to whole theyare out there, But really, since

(04:13):
I owned two businesses, I gotto, you know, take part in
it. I was not at theirlevel by any means, but it was
super neat. But you know whatthey say, I mean, you should
try to align yourself with people whoare so far above you that you can
get to that level. Yeah,you're the sum of your five closest people.
That's like the most common thing peoplesay. So. And the crazy
thing as I've been working at thisranch in Colorado for four years and they're

(04:34):
all high level, like they're eithermost of them are like eight figures and
above high eight figures, And it'slike I didn't learn Jack's in four years,
I learned less than I did inyou know, three days really doing
that Mastermind. As far as businessguys, because that's what it was all
about, it's great. Yeah yeah, right event, you know, right

(04:56):
place, right time. They're notfocused on their thing. Maybe or maybe
you felt more comforta to ask questions. That's always been a tough thing that
they were forced questions. You know. It's like is that forced conversation to
yeah? Yeah, Well so Ithink the good thing that we should do
is probably have you introduce yourself,explain who you are, some of your
back background, and we can workinto some of these other really neat topics,
because I mean, you have tobe a very unique individual to want

(05:18):
to partake in something like that,and so I think there's probably a backstory
on how you got to be whoyou are that will put you in a
position where you're like, this isa good idea doing a hard shit.
That's what it boils down to.I like, for some reason to do
hard stuff. Yeah, specific peoplereally, I mean, and that's one
thing that like people who take onentrepreneurship or challenges or high level military things,

(05:40):
they all have kind of that screwthat's tightened to adversity, craving adversity.
Yeah yeah, tell us about yourself, like who you are, and
we'll kind of go from there.We've been rolling by that. Oh you're
rolling. We've been rolling this wholetime. Click. Yeah. Yeah.
This isn't Discovery Channel, all right. Yeah, it's a history history channel,

(06:01):
all right. So uh yeah,my name is Marked Ambrosio. Grew
up hunting, fishing, surfing,so it was kind of a weird mix
right there. I couldn't decide whetherI wanted to surfboard in my hand or
a gun. But joined the militarywhen I was twenty two, got into
a recon, went Scott Sniper.After being in a recon unit, conducted

(06:25):
operations with those guys for a while. Then I went to go instruct as
a recon Scott sniper up the MountainWarfare High Angle uh sniper course, and
that was one of the best jobsI ever had ever had, like getting
paid for you know, um theMountain Survival course. We ran that as
well, So that's when I kindof developed a passion for teaching. Fast

(06:46):
forward to twenty seventeen, I gotout separated from my hearing, so can't
hear well out of my left earor my right here, but uh.
And then I started my own businessteaching shooting sustainment, mostly military law enforce
and starting off in a transition tohunters and now I teach mostly like individual

(07:09):
private courses where I take people outdeep in the bad country. I take
them from not being able to changea truck tire all the way to being
able to navigate thirty miles to themountains off trail with a little mini compass,
engaging targets and starting friction fires.So that's the end goal. Usually
takes four to six courses. I'vebeen doing that since twenty seventeen. In

(07:30):
the meantime, I've also I wason a loan season seven, I was
on a loan Frozen, which waslast year just aired, and I was
and I started a wine brand thisyear, So all over the place with
different things as far as you know, I guess what I do. Yeah,
Well, let's go way back,because I'm always curious when I when

(07:51):
I get to talk to people whochose military as their initial career, their
starting path, you know, aboutsome of their formative years and kind of
what led you to want to dothat specifically. Yeah, so, you
know, I was a man inhigh school. I think my senior year,
I only had one class that Ihad to do to finish the credits,

(08:11):
and so I only had second period, and I was working. That
means I was working full time atTexas Roadhouse, and I was just cooking
and cleaning dishes and all the wayup until I was well nineteen is when
it really hit man, I donot want to be working three jobs to
sustain buying my fancy truck and mymotorcycles and the lifestyle that I want.

(08:33):
So I started training. I lookedat online. I was like, what's
the most badass thing there is outthere? And I'm not saying recon is
the most badass thing out there,but it's you know, I think they're
all pretty equivalent, if I'm beinghonest. But I saw a guy coming
up out of the water with arifle with Cammy paint on his face and
a Gillie suit and kind of ridiculous, but it was awesome. I was

(08:56):
like, that's what we're gonna do. So we trained for four shriek on
FORU for two years, me andmy buddy. He lost one hundred pounds.
I gained sixty um. And thenwhen we went in there was there
a regiment like you went googled orwhatever was available at that time. I
just knew. I just knew thestandards I had to pass at Sanders,
I had to meet sure, andI was like, oh, this sucks.

(09:18):
We got a train because if wego in there, like we're gonna
get our asses handed to us.Yeah. So I would say most people
probably don't train to that level fortwo years sure before going in. But
because my buddy was you know,fat who he had to lose some weights,
I was like, might as well, just I was skinny. Yeah,
I was a stick. So wewent in. Uh we were a

(09:41):
little bit older, I guess thansome and then uh, you know,
physically fit and most of the gout. I mean everybody that passed obviously was
extremely physically fit. But you know, that's when I would say the first
time that I really pushed my mindand body and soul um to the point
of almost breaking but not breaking.But I pushed myself pretty damn far going

(10:03):
through those courses and then deploying.You think that, like the selection process
and going through those courses is thehardest being in the damn units artist,
you know, being through a predive, which is getting you ready for
dive school. You drowned a hellof a lot more in pre dive than
you do in dive school. Butyeah, you know, um, I

(10:24):
guess in my mind, I waslike, hey, I don't want to
work three jobs. And I wasalso thinking about the war that was happening
at that point in time. AndI was a senior in high school.
I graduated two thousand and four,and so the war just kicked off,
you know, not shortly before that, and my whole thought process was,

(10:46):
Man, these guys that signed upfor this, uh, they didn't even
sign up for war. And Iwas a single dude, and I was
like, well, let's go helpthem out. I guess in my head,
I was, you know, Iwanted to help those dudes out if
I could, But I did didn'twant to go to like just any unit,
So I want to do something,um where I felt like people knew
what they were doing a little bitmore. So that's why I kind of

(11:09):
chose that route. Yeah, Ithought it looked cool. Yeah, I
don't blame you. That does soundreally cool when you explain it in details,
like yeah, I get it ifyou're going to choose one thing.
I mean, like if you're ifyou're kind of a hardcore guy, there's
only a few pass like you cango in the military, right if you
want to be absolutely hardcore. Idon't know, man, Yeah, it's
kind of crazy the because I've workedwith every branch and the DoD and it's

(11:30):
like, at the end of theday, it's pretty interesting because you could
be in I look at it allthe same now really. Yeah, Like
I know a lot of Marines,all Marine Corps, but man, the
Marines, the Army, the AirForce, the Navy, they're all the
same. They all serve their purpose. They're all good people, and you
know, as far as hardcore,Like I've seen marines cry before for having

(11:52):
to kill a rabbit, right,you know. So it's like, you
know, you got all walks oflife in every branch. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I mean that makes alot of sense. But okay,
that's that's an interesting backstory. ButI mean, how long were you in
almost ten years? Almost ten Soit was not just hey, I'm gonna
do my four get out or doone extension. No, it was I

(12:13):
had just made up my mind thatI was staying in for a career.
After I got don instruct I waslike, all right, yeah, hey,
I'm and I was happy really Andabout a year after I had re
enlisted that that would take me totwelve years and I don't only have eight
after that. But about a yearafter I re enlisted, they were like,
you can't hear well enough to passthe physical for free fall And I

(12:37):
was like, so usually when Iwalk around with coms on my head when
we're on a the mission, Iwould take my ear piece and I put
it up halfway. Yeah, soI could like hear my team members,
but I could also hear what wasgoing on my comms. And you know,
it did not work out for meas far as staying in the Marine
Corps. Are like you can eithergo be a cook or something lesser than

(12:58):
aric marine, yeah, or youcan get out. And I was like,
well, I'm gonna try and figureout life on the outside. Yeah,
so what what caused? Uh?What caused the hearing issue? Was
that? Sometimes? Man? Yeah, it was mostly it was the Marine
Corps and shooting. Uh really itwas just a fifty cow out of a
bird, um uh as Sasser sonot a um so it was a it's

(13:28):
not a sniper RiFL, but it'sa semi automatic scoped rifle. I think
it's what stands for God, it'sbeen so long. I'm sorry, I
guess m. But you know,it's just a big, heavy weapon system
and you need to really wear adouble hearing potation when you're shooting. But
I need to be able to talkto the pilot sure and kind of tell
them what to do, and itjust didn't work out for me. So

(13:50):
that happened in twenty ten, andI was lucky enough to go all with
twenty seventeen without them figuring out howbad it was. Um, but yeah,
that's why I lost the herring.And yeah, what like where ear
protection? Guys, if you're everout there shooting guns, I'll tell you
we're more ear pro now than Iever did, because I barely have any
hearing left. Yeah. Yeah,that's the mistake. I mean, I

(14:13):
certainly made that mistake too, butluckily it wasn't a fifty cow. Yeah,
but you know, a twelve gateshotgun in your ear also does damage.
So well, that's that's interesting,and I guess it prompts a lot
of questions. But I think weshould talk about some more of kind of
your story before I ask you allthese deep interesting questions, because I always
have a lot of questions for militarypersonnel, especially nowadays, because there's so

(14:35):
many interesting I'm using the word interestingvery loosely things happening in the military right
now. But you know, andI always wonder people who serve their country
what they think about some of thosethings, whether or not you have an
opinion or not. But so onceyou left the military, you started teaching,
and you know, there's another pathbefore you decided to try and do
this TV show, obviously, butwhat got you from hey, military,

(14:58):
this was my path, this iswho I am, to your next stage
to thinking, you know what,the show looks pretty dope. Well,
I always thought the show was dope. I was actually in the militaria when
it first kicked off, instructing theMountain Survival course, and we saw this.
As an instructor was like, thisis amazing. It was just the
most realistic survival show that there wasout there, and um, you know,

(15:24):
I ended up getting out and startedmy own business teaching what I knew,
which was what I was good at, which is the sustainment and the
shooting aspect and you know survival ifyou want to call it survival and it
you know, I went through,uh, Donnie Dust one of Donnie Dust
course because I'm a big advocate ofgoing through follow one training, even as

(15:46):
an instructor, you never know atall. So explain what that is that
follow one training, well, DonnieDust. Yes, So yeah, Donnie
Dust. He was on season sixof a loane Um. This dude is
just a primitive survival expert and whereI'm are of a modern US equipment and
I'm pretty good with a friction fireand bow droll and handrill, but like
that dude when it comes to nappingor making arrowheads or doing everything as primitive

(16:10):
as it gets, I would sayhe's one of the leading experts in that.
So me and my buddy Jerry,who was an instructor with me in
the Marine Corps at that course,we kind of stood up that survival course.
We both were running the business togetherand when we were like, hey,
we're going through his course. Sowe went through three days with Donnie
Dust, and because we had donethat, we got to know him.

(16:32):
Turns out he was one of Jerry'sinfantry instructors in the Marine Corps, which
is kind of crazy. And thenyeah, he recommended me for season seven.
So that's kind of how I goton there because I never applied.
They've kind of reached out to me, and then I just send in my
content and videos to try and competefor a spot. Sure, so that

(16:52):
is that Usually what people are doing. They're like, why I want to
try that? And they apply.Normally, Yeah, they'll get like thirty
to sixty two hundred thousand applicants.Yeah, people wanting to get on the
show and do it and test it. And then it's I mean, in
my opinion, it's the like theOlympics for survival. Yeah, you know,
because you're out there by yourself andyou only have ten items and you're

(17:17):
dropped off the worst time of year. You gotta film everything and yeah,
you gotta try and make it happen. Yeah. So what was the because
I'm just really interested in like whatthe interview process would be like, Like
how long of a process was that? What type of questions did they ask
you? You know, with thatmany people applying me, that just sounds
like a massive task to find theright people to do it, and you

(17:37):
know, and for people that haveseen the show in the past all the
way up to the current seasons.They're getting so much better with choosing the
right people. Yeah, but atthe same time, it's like, I
mean, so they'll they'll take you. They kind of sift through and they're
like, hey, here's our topforty people. After they have their top

(17:59):
forties and all your content, andthey're like looking at people's social media.
It's pretty easy nowadays. It kindof picked it people because you can see
their skills on social and see ifit's fake or if they're funking their skills
or faking their skills. But soafter that you send it in all your
content, they'll make for reels outof it, and then they'll pick the
top twenty. After they pick thetop twenty. In the past, before

(18:22):
COVID, you showed up usually inNew York or somewhere, and then you
compete. You don't. You weren'tcompeting against them. You're just showing them
what you could do. Sure,how you'd build a shelter, how you'd
start a fire, if you canswim, the basic stuff and so and
that's but they're also getting to seeyour personality. So if you're trying sitting

(18:44):
there trying to be someone that you'renot. You're not gonna be able to
sustain that for long term, especiallywhen you're tired, you're cranky, or
you know, you're not eating oryou're starving right or you're shooting your sleeping
bag. So yeah, so like, you know, we did that,
and then they choose and they selecta Hey, congratulations, you made it
for season seven. You got likea month to get ready. Oh you

(19:07):
only get a month? Well it'syeah, it's not much like a month
month and a half in between themactually selecting you to when you're going wow.
Um, sometimes a little bit longer, but sometimes they're delaying the process.
Sure, And so you're like allright, and then you show up
on site and you get to meetall the other contestants that you know you
already should have met in New York, but because of COVID it might have
been like teleconference or something. Butthere's a psychological exam, you know,

(19:33):
there's a medical exam, there's paperworkout the ass you got to sign.
I mean, you got to thepoint where I'm just like I don't even
know what I'm signing. Clearly Iwant to do this, So yeah,
it's kind of like buying something you'renot going to read it sign it.
Yeah, but yeah, it wasa and you go and you do it
and see if you can actually doit right. So, so to give

(19:56):
you about a month because there's stillsome more questions I have to they like
suggest things that you should do toget prepared for it. And you have
a pretty good idea from watching theshow. I just and then I mean,
I wonder if you watch it,I'm sure there's so much you see,
but then when you get there,there's so many things that you didn't
expect. I'm sure, Oh,there's exactly like and every season's different usually,
so usually every seasons in a differentarea. We were super lucky because

(20:19):
it was in the same general vicinityas season six, so we'd got to
see a previous season go there andwhat they're dealing with. But you know,
as far as setting you up forsuccess, I mean, they've got
they've got two survival consultants out therethat, in my opinion, Dave one

(20:41):
of them. He's got to bethe smartest man when it comes to survival
and how the human body deals withhuman starvation, because in today's world,
he's like seeing it in every singlecontestant. But he's gone to every single
season, so he's been to everysingle location, worked with it. Indigenous
people of that location wrote the bookfor you know, Hey, this is

(21:03):
the plants that are common in thisarea. So but you get to go
there, you get to prep alittle bit, and you get to see
the general area you're in. You'renot taking to your spot or anywhere,
but you know, you get tosee the general area you're into. Kind
of, hey, you start gettingready, but you already have a deep
understanding of survival and sustainment and feedingyourself and maybe not a deep understanding of

(21:30):
being by yourself, but a deepunderstanding of how to do these basic skills
to be able to make it tothe next day. Sure, so yeah,
I mean as far as prepping,one of the things that I did
big time is I made gillnets alot. I made a lot of gillnets,
and I made over and over andmade sure my cortage was the exact

(21:52):
measurement. And then I would getmy bow and I would shoot my trad
bow a lot, trying to getbetter with that because I explain what a
trad bow is. Yeah, soa traditional bow it could be a recurve
or it could be a long bow. You know, I kind of went
from compound growing up to h andI've shot some recurve grown up, but
I went from compound to a reflexdeflex, which is kind of in between

(22:15):
a recurve and a long bow.And then I went to a bow that
I've a stick that I built withmy own two hands, and that's what
I'm elk hunting with this year really, And so you know, traditional archery,
there's a big difference between having ashelf where the raw sits on it
and not having a shelf, yeah, meaning and sitting on your hand.
Yeah, And that's as you know, traditional as it gets when it comes

(22:37):
to the bow world. But you'reshooting with a stick essentially now. But
it could be a fiberglass traditional bow, sure. Yeah. So I would
practice that, I would, andthe snaring portion, I was really confident
and snaring. But I'd never madea guillnet before, you know, and
that's something that produced like three hundredfifty pounds of fish for me, right,
something that I've never even made,like never even implemented in real because

(23:00):
it's illegal. Sure, um,And so when I went out there and
start catching fish. Day one,I was like, this is awesome,
you know, but it was justand then it was you know, you
figure out if you are going tobe happy if you're out there, Like
I didn't know if I was gonnalast five days or ten days or twenty.
Yeah. I went out there andI was like, I'm having a
good time. Yeah it's fun.It sucks, there's a lot of work,

(23:22):
but I was having a good time. So yeah, yeah, that's
that's interesting. So so you getdropped off. I mean, what you
have ten items and I don't.I haven't watched the show in a long
time, and I purposely when Ifound out your coming on, I didn't
want to so that I could likehave the wonder of asking all these questions.
But because it's almost like you discoversomething again if you don't consume it
for a while, because it isa wildly entertaining show. But so they

(23:45):
drop you and they give you theseten eyes, especially for the people who
don't know. I think everybody knowswhat the show is, but maybe some
people haven't listened to it. Yeah, um, what are these ten items
that you get? Do you choosefrom some items or you assigned to ten.
No, they don't want to signthem. So they've got different categories
and you're allowed to bring. Um, there's rules and regulations what you can

(24:06):
bring, but you bring all yourown gear. So sleeping bag, for
example, I wanted we were goingto the Arctic, so I went in
order to two thousand dollars sleeping bag. I think my gear allotment was did
not cover all my gear, I'lljust say that. So if it doesn't,
does that mean you can spend yourown money to get them? Oh?
Yeah, okay, so you cando what you can spend ye as
much money as you want. Butum, in the past and historically speaking

(24:32):
alone, it's the contestants that aregoing on there aren't exactly yeah. Um.
And that's you know, one ofthe reasons why they're so successful the
shows, because they're hard people.They've been living hard lives. But you
know, so I've spent two grandon a sleeping bag from PhD and it's
a negative seventy two degree bag,which is insane, right, Um,

(24:52):
But you know it's kind of like, okay, well, if I have
a bivy, it's a this sleepingbags a bivy on the outside waterproof on
the outside and down on the inside. That's the only one sleeping bag,
right, So there's ways to like, you know, figure out how to
for gear selection. I was like, okay, well I need to produce
food. I don't want to bringany food because I want to see if

(25:15):
I can get it. Sure,that was a whole purpose, because that's
something people would do, is theybring like dried, dried foods and things
like that. They can bring likea pound of this or a pound of
that, or two pounds of this, and it's you know, so you
have all these options of the stuffyou can bring, and really who knows
who's making the right decision, rightbecause you don't know what location you're going
to. You don't know your resources. So all I knew is I wanted
to provide food. So I broughtfive fifty cords so I can make a

(25:37):
gill net and I can tie stuff. I'm not trying to make string.
Sure, I brought an axe.I brought a saw. I brought a
I did not bring a fixed bladelife Instead, I brought a leatherman because
it has a knife on there.Sure, now I had my leatherman and
my axe that both had blades onthem. I brought some snare wire because
I wanted to catch food. Ibrought a bow with nine arrows. Kind

(26:00):
of is one item a pot toboil water in a ferro rod because I'm
not trying to do a bow drillfire every day, so for friction fires,
a sleeping bag, and a fishingkit. So I brought four different
ways to procure food if I countedright, Um, four different ways to
procure food instead of bringing a singlefood item. And I'll tell you,

(26:22):
man, I've snared rabbits, asnared game. I caught fish in the
water. I mean I shot squirrelsand rabbits with my bow. Um.
So almost every single one of thosemethods provided food. Sure. Um.
So that's I think one of themost rewarding things building to be dropped off
in absolute isolation. I've never donethat before. Like we're talking like where

(26:45):
we were zero human. I didn'tsee any trash I found like one can
from a long time ago, andyou're kind of like expecting to find trash
that right, survivor Man's survival.Yeah, And I did that, Jack
Squad, and I was like,Wow, we're out here, and even
the animals acted different. I've neverseen a rabbit run across look at me

(27:07):
as like what is that thing?And I'm like, this could be a
little bit easier than what I wasexpecting. Yeah, because you know,
but once you get in their areathey learn you, then that's a different
story. Yeah. So what werethe tactics that you used to try to
prevent that? Right? Because Iguess I could see like if you hunt
too close to your camp or youdon't go far enough out in certain areas
to find game, that they couldlearn your patterns, like you're trying to

(27:30):
learn. There's maybe, um yeahmaybe for the trapping. You know,
the only thing I implemented with trapping, well, you're just getting as much
as you can as fast as youcan. Sure, so if it's around
your camp, then you take it, get it, try and freeze it.
But you know there is some thereis a process of the sometimes because

(27:52):
if you kill a large game animalbefore say day thirty on our show,
our season, you're not gonna beable to preserve that, Like you're not
gonna be able to serve at all. Sure, if you know, if
Roland would have killed that musk oxlike four days before he did, he
killed it perfect timing. But ifhe would have killed a muskox four days
before he did, he would havebeen having to sit there and trying to

(28:12):
dry it out. Well, thenit would have froze. So he'd been
kind of lucky, but say dayten, a lot of that would have
spoiled. I was catching, youknow, two to four huge trout a
day, and it was a constantfire, going to smoke all this fish,
yeah, constantly, and it wasexhausting. But so when it comes
came to take an animals, Iknew. I was like, okay,

(28:33):
I'd have to have a process I'mdoing every day, and that could be
I'm gonna go check my gill netin the morning, and on the way
to my gill net, I'm gonnacheck my rabbit snares. On the way
back, I'm gonna do his huntingloop where I'm gonna be hunting on the
way back, come back, workon the shelter, do an hour of
firewood, and then it's kind ofgo back to check the gill nets,
traps, and a little bit morehunting. But it's really build your shelter.

(28:56):
Once you get that up, it'sfood food, food, and then
just trying to stay busy. Honestly, I think keep that mental state up
there. And yeah, it's kindof like a it's kind of a fascinating
thing because if you look at andjust hearing you in your process, it's
like something like, wow, itreally simplifies life. Yeah, it really
simplifies life because we have so muchnoise, and you know, we all

(29:18):
go through so many different things thatseems so chaotic. I mean goodness,
it's just that season for everybody wherewhatever can go wrong seems to go wrong.
But it's it's all such monetary typethings and and a lot of it.
It just really doesn't matter if somewhereto drop you in the wilderness.
You just said it. It's food, food, food, and that is
like the largest currency in our entireexistence. It's kind of unbelievable if you
think how simple life gets if that'syour only goal, really well, and

(29:44):
it boils down to like Maslow's hierarchyof needs and you're taken down to the
very bottom of the pyramid. Andyou know, people, a little question
I get a lot is like,did you want to have sex while you're
out there? Let me ask thatright now. Negative, No, there's
zero desire for anything to work inthat regards like you do not care.

(30:07):
And it actually took a while fromwhen I got back to even care about
sex. But yeah, you don't. Your body is deprived of nutrients.
It's not even on your mind.And so you know, when you're taking
to that bottom level, you can'tmove up in that pyramids until you start
securing these basic needs, which isfire, water, shelter, food.

(30:30):
Once you have those, that's whenyour mind can start being like, oh
I miss family or oh I missmy kid. What's life? What is
it really worth? Is this worthit to me? And stuff like that.
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were talking, you just mentioned like, there's no noise when you come back

(31:36):
after spending let's just say, fortyfour days, forty four days in the
wilderness by yourself, and all you'rehaving is a med team check up on
you for one hour every like twoweeks. It's your only human interaction.
What are they doing taking vitals,making sure, making sure you're not gonna
die, infections or things like that. So you do that and you come
back and there's a generator going off. You're like, you hear everything,

(32:00):
you feel everything, you smell everything, and you're like, wow, our
senses are so dumbed down because wespend all day looking at our phone.
Your visions better not mine. BecauseI had trichinosis and everything was failing on
my body. But like most peopleanybody else, Yeah, their visions better,
right, and like you can smellmore, you can hear more,

(32:22):
and you realize that that lifestyle isjust better. Now. Obviously I'm not
out there. I live in ahouse, I live in a neighborhood.
I don't live in the middle ofthe wilderness. I didn't just you know,
go completely off grid. But likeI appreciate a toilet, I appreciate
a chair. You appreciate everything waymore, the things that we may not

(32:45):
appreciate. Running water. So it'sand all I was eating was fish,
squirrels, rabbits, berries, someberries that I would find, and then
it was and reindeer moss was justdisgusting. And then all I was drinking
was water. So it's like oneof the cleanest diet. Well, it's

(33:05):
the cleanest diet I've ever been on, cleanest way of living. I was
brushing my teeth with charcoal, andmy teeth that never felt better. Yeah,
and it's crazy to think, likethat's natural. Yeah, something that
anybody can get. Just arenal logsin charcoal and started brushing your teeth.
But you know, there's a lotof things I found out about myself from

(33:27):
doing that show that we're pretty amazing. So I went and did the show
again and it was called Loane Frozenand it's airing now, so they already
aired the first two episodes. Iwant to say, I'm only going to
talk about maps. I only stayeduntil day five. But like you know,
Alone Frozen. After I went anddid it the first time, and
you go back and do it asecond time, it's like, all right,

(33:51):
I already know I can catch food. I already know I can be
out here for forty four days.So now it's like, what am I
gonna do? How am I gonnado this? What's my strat and is
it worth it? And I wentout there the second time and I was
like pumped to be out there.Things were extremely different. I'll just say
that this go around for the waythe show was laid out, and I

(34:13):
was like, nah, I'm notgonna stay for that. So I decided
to leave after day five. Butlike, talk about another amazing experience,
going to see another part of theworld. And you go out there and
you're like all right, And Ilooked at my area and I said,
I can't provide food for myself toactually be to thrive or even to live,

(34:35):
so that I would call it threedifferent stages, and alone, i'd
say you're either surviving, you're living, or you're thriving. You want to
be living. You know it mightsuck, but you're living. The gold
goal, I guess would be tobe thriving. Right, You're happy,
you've got your moving up Maslow's hagarknees. You're gonna start building a city,
You're gonna find a woman out there, you know, start to tribe.

(35:00):
It's not gonna ever happen, butyeah, like that's the goal.
But when you're just surviving, you'rereally like, what am I doing?
Just starving out here? I'm justseeing if I can sit out here and
see how long I can go untilthey pull me for starvation. But it's
only because there's another there's a wayout, probably, right, What do
you mean, Well, like you'rethinking those thoughts. If I'm understanding you

(35:21):
correctly, it's like you're thinking becausethere is this contingency, like I could
just wave my hand to be done. But if you were truly like in
a survival situation where it was literallythe only option, you know, you're
out there. Yeah, yeah,you're out there. I just wonder if
the thought process would be different.So, oh, it absolutely is,
because this is a game. Yeahyou know, this is it's one hundred
percent of game, and it's it'sa realistic game. But the thing is

(35:43):
like, what's its purpose? Sofor me, it was never about the
money, whether it was a millionor the five hundred, the attacks it
it could be I could spend moneypretty quick, so it could be gone
pretty quick, right right, Andso for me it was, hey,
I teach this stuff for a living. I really want to put my skills
to the test, and I wantto be able to see what really works

(36:06):
out of the books because I've neverspent that kind of a time by myself
in the wilderness with just these items. So that was super rewarding going out
there and doing that and figuring outwhat work the money aspect, if you
were going there for the money,then yeah, starve it out, you
know, go there and if that'swhat your time's worth. For me,
time is money, and if Iwas to spend it, I looked at

(36:28):
it and I was like, okay, I got forty five days left,
and I was like forty five daysor I could go home to my kid,
hang out with him, and spendforty five days towards growing my business.
And I was like, starve itout or do something worthwhile. And
I was looking at it. It'sjust a money thing at this point,

(36:49):
and I was like, no,I'm not, that's not what I'm about.
Yeah. I looked at my areaand I the area that I was
given and I gave it five daysago. There's not yet sit here for
food right now. I was lookingat I was like, ah, that
sucks, and I had you know, that's the cards you get dealt sometimes,
and so people are like, well, that's what you gotta do.
You gotta deal with that adversity andgo out there. And for me,

(37:12):
it's like, well I know thatI can. And it was only a
fifty day challenge right right. Soum, I was like, well,
everybody here had either gone fifty daysor pretty damn close. Sure, yeah,
including you. Yeah, forty fourdays with triconosis. I feel like
it almost counts as fifty, butit doesn't. I'm not gonna take it
away. But like with heart failure, I feel like it's you know,
pretty close. Yeah, I thinkyou get you get like a like a

(37:36):
at least a couple of hours,yeah something no, um, but yeah.
So you know, the whole purposeof doing alone, and for everybody
that ever wants to go out thereis to it should be to reconnect to
that natural side of life, togo out there and to push your mind,
body, and soul to levels you'venever pushed it before. And I

(37:57):
pushed mine in the first season toheart failure, and so I was like,
I felt pretty good about pushing itthat far. I didn't know I
was in heart failure, but Ipushed it to that level, and I
was like, Okay, I've donesome hard shit in life. I was
a recommrine, I was a scout, sniper, I started a business that's
just not easy. But physically speaking, hunting, being a recommrine, bringing
a sniper, those were physically exhaustingthings. And when I was out there

(38:21):
and I'm eating and I'm struggling morethan I wasn't any of those combined,
I was like, it's time togo. I'm done. I hit my
breaking point. And thank god Iquit when I quit, or else I
would have I wouldn't be here today. Yeah. So, but then a
couple of days, Yeah, that'spretty pretty amazing, Like that's almost like
like a divine intervention. Yeah,you know the whole idea of that,

(38:42):
because you didn't know what what hadyou feeling that way? I just knew
I was tired. Yeah, andI was like, well, being a
little bit, all right, itis what it is. Yeah, it
is what it is. And Iwasn't freaking I'm tired. And they were
like, what's wrong. I'm likefucking tired. They're like, that's it,
You're tired. I'm like, youknow, understand, I'm just carrying
like these little sticks. I'm exhausted. Yeah, it's like it's hard to

(39:02):
breathe them so tired. Yeah.And so you know what, when we
it took like five or six daysuntil we found out I was in conguestive
heart failure. Yeah. But itis an intervention and it but it's such
a I don't know, man.It I suggest that anybody who's listening to
this, if they can, goto the wilderness, go to the woods,

(39:25):
go to the mountains, go tothe beach wherever you're at, and
just spend five days by yourself,four days by yourself, three days by
yourself with nothing, no phone,no emil, bring food, enjoy it,
you know what I mean. Youdon't have to go out there and
try and find your own food,but just spend that amount of time with
no other human interaction. That ismedicine that is good for the soul.

(39:50):
You actually find out if you likeyourself too while you're out there, right.
Yeah. So I'm wondering about someof the self reflection stuff that maybe
you went through and if that wasdifficult, if you liked what you saw,
if you if it created an opportunityfor you to change the things you
didn't, what type of growth canYeah, I was worried. Yeah,
and I had some demons in mycloset and I'm like, oh god,
they say if you don't like yourself, like you, you might not last

(40:12):
that long out there. It'll showfor sure. And so I was like,
I don't know, but I don'tknow if I liked myself. I
was a question I was asking myselfwhen I went out there, Like,
I mean, I think I do, but I don't know. And I
got out there and I was like, I was having a blast, and
I was like I love whom,I love what I'm doing. I love
you know me, I guess Andwhat I've accomplished who's in my life,

(40:37):
and you become so grateful for thepeople that are in your life. You
know, I've always been good withtelling people to fuck off if they're not
a good influence on my life.So I don't have like people that are
bad in my life. Sure,But as far as growth, like,
I don't think I I mean,that was a significant growth period in my

(40:58):
life. I'm very militaryized, youknow, I have a military background,
and um, I talk a lot, and I'm very loud and hanging out
with people like KLi and Kai anda'm Mose and all these other contestants Corey
like that are just soft spoken individualsthat are badasses that eat plants for a

(41:20):
living. You know, like Idon't mind gonna do modern Medicine'm gonna eat
this plant. I'm like, Ah. Then I you know, started opening
my eyes more because you know,there's some plant medicine I agreed with.
But then I over the last sinsince alone and meeting those guys and those
those women like unreal, how istransformed into being just more natural with what
I do. Um, even youknow my mindset, my I'm trying to

(41:46):
talk less and listen more. Right, but it goes directly into my into
my businesses too. So you knowthat experience hanging out with those people,
I'm getting out of my comfort zoneof the whole military aspect, and it
was just amazing. Yeah, yeah, that's unbelievable. I imagine it.

(42:07):
It probably shapes the way you liveyour life going forward. And yeah,
so I mean it's a good it'sa good recommendation. Like if somebody wants
to know themselves, go spend fivedays alone in the wilderness somewhere. And
it's crazy because everybody's like I coulddo that. I'm like, I do
it. You know, It's it'snot I'm not saying go out there and
starve, Go bring a tent,go to the mountains, and go do

(42:28):
it. And it's like some peoplethink that it's a waste of time.
You know, I left on dayfive the second time because going more than
that is a waste of time forme. It wasn't worth my time and
it was just because of the setupand and there was not going to be
the same payoff at the end.Or you know, I had I had

(42:51):
left my son when he was hejust turned one, and then I went
and did the show. And soI missed out on that period in his
life. And sure, I'm notwith my son's mother, so I don't
only get to see him like notthat often every other weekend, and because
of his age and like, soI went to go do it again.
And his mom was like, really, you're gonna leave your kid again?

(43:12):
And I was like, well,once in a lifetime opportunity, that's happening
twice. And I was like,you know what I've done, deployments.
It's only fifty days. She'll getover maxwell be okay. And I got
out there and I was like,if I was to have food and I
could be happy and I was goingto be able to live right and not

(43:37):
be miserable and degrade my life,but at least hold the line, then
I absolutely I would have stayed outthere. But if I'm gonna go out
there and just be miserable and losea bunch of weight and people watching it,
the only thing they would think isthis guy can't catch food. But
in reality, I looked in myair and I go, there's nothing here,

(44:00):
right, m I heard one squirrelbark in five freaking days, you
know what I mean? Like onesquirrel, right, that's unreal. Um,
there's no There's one pile of bearscat from like the early spring,
and that was it. I meanit was there. It was just h
yeah. Whether or not, youknow, production did it on purpose or

(44:22):
didn't do it on purpose. Idon't think they did. I think it's
just sometimes you get a bad spot, sometimes you're in a bad area.
Um. And and the reality wasI told production, I was like,
I would just I would walk tothe boundary where I can't walk and weren't
start walking. I would move toan area that had stuff. I'd move
inland, I would move down thecoast, but we weren't allowed to do

(44:45):
that. And I was like,I would never stay here in Millionaires.
I'm not gonna stay here now.I'm not going to change that who I
who that you know that part ofme. So with a smile on my
face, I was like, I'mdone. And it was crazy because it
was only five days, and Iwas kind of pissed because I was like
really looking forward to do having thatexperience again, being able to be out
there and building stuff. I loveto build stuff by providing your own food.

(45:10):
I mean I didn't even catch afish until day six the first time
I did it, And so it'slike, you know, I didn't get
to that point where I was evenproviding food for myself, but I just
knew that it wasn't worth it.So yeah, yeah that makes sense.

(45:31):
Alone is by far one of themost legit realistic shows or is out there.
But you know, it's a show. So when you have to put
boundaries on something, it starts becominglike, okay, like what are the
rules. There's a lot of rulesand regulations people don't know. I'll just
say that I'm not going to ruinit. Yeah, but like there's a

(45:53):
lot of rules. There's your indigenousrules of whatever tribe, your land you're
on, or indigent people's land you'reon, there's that country's rules. Then
there's productions rules because you know,yeah that I mean that creates some good
questions and maybe you can answer,maybe you can't. But like, so
is all the land that you guysare on indigenous people's lands that you can

(46:14):
kind of get away with certain thingsor no, not always, um,
sometimes it is. Um they're findingspots all around the world trying to to
mix it up a little bit sureand to really test people. So they're
going in an area that they weren't. Really, they're not watching the same
area over and over and learning it. But um, I don't know.

(46:37):
Yeah, because like harvesting game inthings, I mean like obviously there's some
clause and contingency there to allow youto harvest whatever games around that's outside of
the boundaries of a typical hunting seasonor what have you. Right, not
all the time really yeah, like, uh, you know where we were
at, we had you know,we were able to hunt black bear,
We're able to hunt moose, butwe had a cow tag on a bowl

(46:59):
tag really so that we could killeither a cowerable but not both. Not
both. Um, but you cankill one of each, you could,
but you could only kill ten rabbitsand you could only kill ten squirrels.
And people are like, what theheck are you talking? Yeah, oh
yeah, there's limits on that stuff. You were not allowed to kill a
wolverine with a bow, or youweren't allowed to trapp it, but you

(47:22):
could shoot it with a bow.Really. Um, you're fishing hooks no
barbs. I don't know have youever been fishing without a barber in your
hook? But it sucks when you'reusing a hand lines, right. Everybody
else has done is use a pole. It's not what I'm talking about.
Use a hand line with your hand. Trying ruling a fish a trout without
a barb it sucks. Um.The what was one of the other big

(47:43):
ones, Oh, wolf tags.We were given wolf tags and somebody was
like, you can't kill a wolf. Yeah, nobody can kill a wolf.
And they're like, dude, it'sfood, right or trying to feed
ourselves. So you know, it'sit's it is. It's pretty insane,
like and every season's different, soit's not like that's the same everywhere you

(48:04):
go. Sometimes you can, youcan't hunt bear, sometimes you can.
Sometimes it all depends. Sure,Yeah, rules regulations, but you know
what like being able to go outthere and just do it. Who cares
about the rules, Like it's youabide by them obviously because everything is recorded,
right Yeah? Well yeah, andso what are some of the regulations,
Like it's far because you're recording yourself. What of the time, one

(48:30):
hundred percent of the time you're recordingyourself, But there's trail cams that are
out there to make sure that you'refollowing these rules, not necessarily to make
sure you're following the rules, justto catch um, the scenes that you
may not catchum. And so youknow, trying to go out there and
do something that you're not supposed todo. I mean it's just no one

(48:52):
likes a cheater, right, Um. But like they would definitely be able
to find out if they wanted to. Oh yeah, I mean you're trapped.
Act. Yeah, they've got dronesthat'll fly over, you know,
try and catch a shot of something. But like, yeah, and you
never know when they're showing up,all right, So you could be doing
something that you're not supposed to bedoing, shasty and then they show up.

(49:14):
But like you know, at theend of the day, there's nine
other people usually that are out thereand they're dealing with the same thing.
So figure it out. Yeah,yeah, I mean, what do you
think the biggest lesson you took fromthe whole experience was So my whole purpose
of going out there the first timewas to not quit, right, And

(49:37):
my whole thing was like, hey, do not quit, no matter what,
you just don't quit and it'll beall right. Like you could die
out there, it's better than quitting. And that's something that's been ingrained in
my head through the recon and theScout sniper communities, And the lesson I
learned was due know your body.Push yourself, absolutely, push yourself musically,

(50:00):
physically, mentally, and spiritually.But like if you listen to your
sixth cents, that can keep youalive because just pushing your body to extreme
failure, you're going to die,right, And it's really easy to do
that in a situation like that.You know I got I got nothing but
positive feedback from people because hey,I'm here to build to spend time with

(50:21):
my son. Right with a differencebetween two days, that is what the
doctor told me. If I wouldhave stayed out there for two more days,
more than likely my heart would havecompletely failed. And that's I mean
my legs it's swilling up from myknees down. My trapponent levels were through
the roof, right like it was. It was heart failed. But I
didn't know any of that, right, right, So you know, I
learned to hey it, it's okayto call it if you're pushing yourself to

(50:42):
a point where you're like, thisis not making my life better. There's
no way, shape or form thatmy life's going to get better from this
than why are you there? Changeyour life? Do something different, right,
hit the tap like you have doingstart over. Yeah, there's nothing
wrong with starting over. Now.If it's a habit of yours where you're
always quitting everything and you're always startingover, then that might be something that

(51:07):
needs to be looked at. Butas far as like people staying in the
same rut in life and not actuallygetting out of that rut, like sometimes
you just gotta hit the reset button, go back to the drawing board.
Whether that's a job, right orwhether that's a way of living, it's
just yeah, I mean, Ido pay close attention to my lifestyle.

(51:31):
And I just went into a likean entrepreneurial trip up in Montana and they
have these ten ways to rate yourselffor business for business, and they have
these ten ways rate ways to rateyourself, and it was like, hey,
how happy are you with your jobor does it serve purpose? And

(51:52):
I'm rating myself at the highest youcould go fives at these and then it
was like financially, how are youAnd I'm like I could probably some work
financially or right, how much downtimedo you get from your cell phone?
And I'm like, I need toget more downtime. I'm horrible with's just
checking social media or posting stuff onthere, and you know it's addicting.

(52:14):
Yeah, so it was. Itwas. It was an eye opening trip
for me too doing this last onewhere it's like, hey, trying to
just live a better, healthier lifeat the same time building business, building
a business and building a lifestyle formy kid because he's my one hundred percent
my purpose now. So yeah,that's a hard lesson, right when you

(52:36):
get stuck in ruts and and alot of what you're saying speaking to me
personally. But one of the hardestthings I think that happens to us in
life when we have children is havingus like especially if you're one of those
like I'm gonna do this, meme, I'm doing, I'm doing,
I'm doing. Is finding a wayto remove yourself from that position or that
spot light and actually focus on somebodyelse's needs above your own. I mean,
that is one of the hardest things. Yeah, it's a female trade

(53:01):
to do that, but it's nota male trade. It's really difficult to
do and that isn't awesome. Wayto think about that is to put somebody
else's needs ahead of your own,or to think about them, because yeah,
we are selfish as people, ashumans, and like when you start
thinking about especially your kids, likelife's not bad. You got a healthy

(53:21):
kid, you know, then you'redoing pretty good unless you hate your kid.
But for me, I don't,like I love my kid. Right,
Well, what's that Jordan? Howold is he still? One?
Two years old? Now he's foreignage four September. Yeah, well,
I don't know if you've ever heardthis line I think everybody has, is
where Jordan Peterson goes. He's like, don't ever let your kids do things
that make you hate them. Don'tever let them do things that make you

(53:44):
dislike them, you know. SoI think a lot of that's on us,
right because when I think about kids, because I have kids, and
my first kid was unexpected and itthrust me into like being an adult.
But you know, I always thinkabout the fact that they didn't choose us
as parents, They didn't choo usedthe existence that they were walking into.
And once I get to a certainage, sure it's up to them,

(54:05):
but I mean, up until thatwhole point, like we are responsible for
crafting them into the people that aregonna be and if they see selfishness from
a parent, and what does thatdo? That like creates a generational curse.
Yeah, And we look at societytoday and we've got a huge problem
with raising kids. We've got ahuge problem because this country has never been

(54:30):
more divided, right, And maybeit's just gone away or gotten a little
bit better because it seems a maskitself sometimes. But like when I raised
my son, I'm not raising themleft or right. I don't care about
any of that. I'm raising himto be a good human being and I'm
raising him to seek adventure in lifeand to seek the mountains. And like,
it's not a religion, right,I'm not going, Hey, this

(54:52):
religion. I'm going to the mountainsare your church for my kid. And
if you want to get into religion, hell yeah, let's do it.
You know, I'll learn some ofsomething about it. But it's about you're,
like you're saying, guiding them andtransforming them into the future, because
they are the future. And whenwe look at even hunting and conservation,
oh man, I forget who saidit, but you know, a true

(55:16):
hunter is somebody that's thinking about theirkid's features. So they're hunting, and
that's conservation is right, You're you'renot out there hunting everything. You're out
there hunting strategically. So everything Ido in this life, I'm like,
Okay, well, I need tobe able to set my son up.
I don't want to give him everything, but at the same time, I
want to show him how to builda business, that you can build a

(55:37):
business, that after being in themilitary, that you can do many hard
things that through hardship, through pain, misery and suffering, you grow.
And that's something that I love teachingmy kid, I love teaching my clients,
and I honestly believe one of theonly reasons why I've made it to

(55:59):
where I'm in life is because Ilike doing hard shit and I enjoy the
suck as what you call. Soyou know, when when you're miserable and
you're out there and you're doing somethingthat you put yourself through that most people
wouldn't and you put a smile onyour face, that's that's as good as
it gets and that's really learning.But you know, for me moving up

(56:20):
Maslow's hierarchy of knees, it wascrazy because I went and did a vacation
with my son recently six days wherewe went from Washington down to Crater Lake,
down to Buddy Joe's cabin. Thenwe went shooting long range and only
like you know, almost four,but we shot. And then we went
up to Lake Tahoe did like akayaking clear bottom tour, and then we
went to Lasta National Park and thenback home. An amazing adventure for a

(56:45):
four year old. And that wasthe best vacation I've ever had in my
life without four year old. AndI'm like, wow, that was insane,
And right then I knew that's thelife, Like, that's what I
love. That's self actualization for meis like I am on my path of
where I need to be doing adventureswith my kids, showing him the things
that I was lucky enough to beable to do. You know, go

(57:07):
places, see things, be worldly, have your beliefs and your values,
but also to be able to takea step back and go, well,
let me look at let me lookat their values and their beliefs. Oh,
that's cool. And I don't needto put it down or I don't
need to try and burn it tothe ground. Do your own thing.
I'm going to do my own thing. But you know, for him to
be open minded. So yeah,raising kids, I mean for me,

(57:32):
I knew I always wanted a kid, and I didn't realize after I had
one, Like I didn't realize itwould be it would consume me like it
did. Yeah. So you know, like you're saying, if you're ever
having hard times, like and you'resitting there working a job you don't want
to do, like, we'll holdon a second before you just quit that
for selfish reason, like think aboutyour kid, Like, is it would

(57:52):
it benefit your kids and your familymore to quit that job, right because
maybe you're stressed out to the maxand all they need as a dad.
Maybe you're making weight. You know, you're making great money, but it
just need you to be present you'renever there. Or maybe it's the complete
opposite, where you're not making anythingfor money and you're stressed out. You're
like, oh, I might needto you know, say goodbye to this

(58:15):
and start working towards something else.But yeah, yeah, I mean life
is such an individual journey, rightto Like there's so many little pieces that
could apply or not apply. ButI think at the end of the day,
with I'm understanding what you're saying andkind of thinking about it, internalizing
it, because you're pretty wise guy, and there's lessons and things that you're
saying from your experiences. But youyou really just need to take a good

(58:37):
look in ward. And I thinkif you do that usually you might find
the answers, you know what Imean. Yeah, I mean spending five
days in the woods is a goodtime to take that look in ward.
I think you're right. And there'sa whole other thing, like you have
to set an example, right,Like if your kids, especially if you're
a guy and you have sons,and your sons see you never giving up

(59:01):
pursuing your dreams, pursuing your goals, you know, relentlessly pursuing like a
purpose, right, that goes onto them, right, and then they
do the same thing. And Ithink that's really important, is that we
if we're some of the lucky fewwho are able to pursue true purpose.

(59:21):
Everybody could, but not everybody findsa path to do it. But if
you do get to pursue true purposeand it's your purpose that goes on,
they see that. I mean,kids are sponges. They taken everything you
do, everything you say, evenyour habits. I mean that's one of
the things I've noticed with my kids. I was saying this on the last
podcast we were doing, but it'sso relevant in this too. Is like

(59:42):
I saw this when I had myfirst kid and then a second one.
Is like the way I rough housedwith my first kid and all of the
rough playing, that's always just thething that I've always done. It like
it gonna be a tough you littleshit and just like I saw, I'm
gonna make sure you're tough. I'mnot gonna let somebody pick on you.
And what I realized is everything likedown to really increment details. And if
you we have another child, you'llsee this. But he immediately carried that

(01:00:02):
over to his brother and did itto his little brother. Same things.
It's like, oh, I'm gonnakick you in the pants. He's like,
I'm gonna kick you in the pants. Yeah, you know. So
all the little things are the sameand it's just a unique opportunity if you
look at it the correct way.I feel like, yeah, yeah,
but you were talking about some ofthe businesses, and I think we have
a really good picture on you andsome of the things you've been through,

(01:00:22):
and I guess you've got all theselessons and now you're implementing on them.
You're doing these events and you're tryingto grow businesses, and so I mean,
what is your ideal future and whatare your your goals and your aspirations.
Now. You know, it's funnylike when I went out, and
you know, I retired from beinggone from my son. I didn't so

(01:00:45):
being gone for extended amounts of time. You know, I'm not doing that
anymore. So I wanted to startbusinesses where hey, I can be there
anytime. You know. His momwas like, hey, can you watch
him? Yeah. So I neededto change my life and what I was
doing. And I love teaching andinstructing the stuff, but you know,

(01:01:06):
I've retired from that ridiculous lifestyle ofleaving my kids. So I started a
wine brand and with that wine branchand an adventure based wine brand. And
everything that I start, whether it'sa show or it's a wine brand,
or it's improving my instruction, themdoing my clients, it's gotta be good.
I have to feel good behind startingthis brand. If I'm developing something

(01:01:30):
that is just not good for society, then I don't and it's just for
money, then I would never feelgood about that. So you know,
the word entrepreneur, I think it'sbullshit nowadays, Like everybody, every hippie
in Portland quits their job and callsthemself an entrepreneur, right, every girl
with an only fans account which streamer, everybody who does shopify as an entrepreneur.

(01:01:52):
So what I'm trying to do isI'm trying to be a businessman.
Now, that is what I saynow, and is because you know,
I started one business, but itwas something I already knew. It was
shooting and survival and the military hadtaught me that. But then I started
a wine brand and I was like, oh okay, I'm getting to know

(01:02:13):
this. And then you know,I always have that business mindset of trying
to do more, learn, becomebetter and help people out. And so
when you do that, it's justyou'll naturally be successful. So like the
wine brand's an adventure based wine company, and so it's got things on the
outside of the bottle. Because Iwas hitting I was hitting a point in

(01:02:37):
life where I was teaching people,but I wasn't gonna be ablest. I
wasn't reaching that many people, andI was like, well, I could
put little items on the outside ofa wine bottle where they could learn how
to use them, and it lookscool and it's damn good wine. But
then I was like, oh,well, if I attach a QR code
to the back of it, thennow they can go and they can scan

(01:02:58):
the QR code in a preplan andten adventures per bottle for him, and
so these adventures that I get togo and do with my kid, like,
you know, for somebody that mightnot be able to be that savvy
on planning stuff, or they needto have someone to tell them, hey,
here's a here's a goal for thenext year of how many advent you
know, what things you should do. This is essentially doing that. So
it tells you a gear list,it tells you the dudes and don't the

(01:03:21):
adventure the good times a year togo do these adventures. And then I
sell a picture frame and a woodenpicture frame. So the goal is to
you know, you go to thisadventure. That's and the links for all
the gear are on there too,so you can just just makes it easy.
But you go do the adventure,you buy the bottle, you scan
a QR code, you go dothe adventure, you celebrate that adventure with
a bottle of wine and you takea picture out there and send up putting

(01:03:45):
it on your TikTok or your Instagram. You can do that too, but
you put it on the wall.And you know, my goal was to
when I first started this was totake have a single male or female twenty
one years of ageal older, theyown, they do ten adventures, and
they become If they were boring tobegin with, you're definitely not gonna be
boring after this, right, theseare ten cool adventures and then that helps

(01:04:10):
you find your person, hopefully someoneelse adventures. Right, then you go,
do you do those ten adventures togetherwith them? Then you start a
family or a group and you dothose with them. But like life is
meant to be lived. It isnot meant to be sit here and work
in you're nine to five every singleday and grinding just for money and finances.
It is meant to go out thereand celebrate. And you know,

(01:04:34):
I started a wine brand that couldhelp people do that, and I was
like, I feel good about this. It's not everybody's budget. It's like
a fifty or sixty dollars bottle ofwine, but it's fifty to sixty dollars
wine that's in the bottle, Soit's a dead tier one. But you
know, from that to changing myinstruction on hey, I was just teaching

(01:04:57):
people in large groups and no,but he was really getting the things I
was teaching because they're in large groups. So then I simplified that, Hey,
if I'm going to teach you howto go out there and kill and
not be killed, like, thisis serious and I take that serious and
I want to give you a qualification. So I started only doing private instruction,
and I transform that private instruction intoa Now it's a two year program.

(01:05:20):
For there's the adventures side where Iteach you private instruction skills, and
then for the serious individuals it takestwo years. There's five instructors for one
client. You got to get througha psychological exam. You got to go
through a physical fitness or a physicalnot aysical fitness. You got to go
through a physical and psychological exam,and then we have a meeting with you.
We say, hey, yeah,you're good for this, you're not

(01:05:41):
good for this, not yet,or yes it now. And that's a
two year program on changing you physically, mentally, and spiritually to be able
to become a better person because somepeople have never been pushed, right,
some people have never been pushed tofailure. But so these are experts in
different fields that are pushing you tobecome. If it's a guy, it's
pushing to become the best version ofa man that you could be. Humble,

(01:06:06):
physically fit, smart, good communicator, deals with stress will So we're
not just changing people in the shootingand the survival and the sustainment aspect.
We're changing them all the ways.And it's because I dealt with a client
that he did that over the courseof four courses and I saw it,
and I saw him change, andI was like, his name's Brian,

(01:06:27):
and I was like, light bulb. It takes two years to complete this,
but I have more value helping someonebecome what Brian became U than I
do teaching hundreds and hundreds of people. Yeah, so quality over quantity for
sure. But these are we're talkingabout insane courses. You know, these
guys they're learning it. They startoff slow, learning everything from how to

(01:06:48):
navigate to how to how to shootlong range, precision shooting, survival,
sustainment, and then we the endgoal is for them to be able to,
you know, go thirty miles inthe mountains, self sustaining, engaging
targets with nothing but a compass,a gun on their back, and they're
packing everything into the back country.So that's something that people start off like,

(01:07:12):
Hey, I'd have to lose someweight first. No, that's part
of it. This guy's got tolose about seventy pounds. My next client,
he's got to lose seventy pounds forit. So he has a year
to lose that seventy pounds and thenafter that we take He's got a deposit
of fifty thousand dollars down so afterthat, if he doesn't lose that weight
in a year, we take tengrand out every month and we put it
towards helping him lose weight. AndI'll tell you money motivates people. It

(01:07:35):
does, so like if he knowshe's coming up on that year, he
might want to start doing something extremelyfast. But and it's not that we
need to get him down to acertain weight, as we need to make
him capable. And the whole thingis we decided on the weight that would
be good for him to be capableto move through the mountains to do this

(01:07:56):
thirty miles because if you can dothat, then you can do adventures with
your kids and you can never beheld back, right, that's what it's
all about. Man, Absolutely,Yeah, Yeah, that's pretty fantastic.
Yeah, that's what I mean.I don't know, I'm not I'm not
a businessman creating a bunch of thingsout there. But what I do I've
got a lot of passion for.So I think that's a lot more important

(01:08:18):
probably if you really think about it. Well, yeah, it's a You're
a really unique individual, and it'sa pretty phenomenal story. And you know,
I really look forward to kind ofseeing what you do and how all
these seeks pan out for you.But I'm really grateful that you took the
time to come tell your story andhave some of these deep conversations. And
I can tell you ponder a loton life, and I think that's really

(01:08:39):
that's what separates It's not a niceway to say it, but the sheep
from the other people is the peoplewho ponder and try to do things and
change and are constantly striving to bebetter. That's that's a unique thing that
it seems like we don't have enoughof anymore. Or if we do,
they're quiet about it. But Ithink it has to be put out there,
right. I think coming on showslike this and the unique end of

(01:09:00):
visuals like yourself, and there's othersout there. We all know who they
are. But the more vocal thatwe are with these types of stories and
the help and trying to put thegood out, I think we can drown
out a lot of this hateful stuffthat's going on and get rid of it.
I think it just it just takesmore of this type of dialogue.
I agree. So I'm glad youcame and your story is fantastic, and

(01:09:20):
yeah, thank you so much duethanks for having me absolutely fly out to
Texas. Yeah. I don't knowhow much time you've spent in Texas,
but it's not a bad place tobe. No, No, I like
it. Yeah, it's cool.If you'd have been here one month ago,
you probably would not be saying that. But we're lucky with the weather
this week for some reason. It'snice. Yeah, absolutely, well awesome.

(01:09:43):
This has been the Gauge, hostedby me Chance Canardo, produced and
ended by our guy Ty Yeager.Shout out to the executive producers, Dustin
Pointer and Cody Denton, Marketing andcontent produced by Riley Chung. Make sure
to rate and review this podcast,as well as follow the Gauge on Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook, and makesure to subscribe to The Gauge wherever

(01:10:04):
you get your podcast. We'll seeyou guys next time.